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thursday, march 22, 1970
llncoln, nebraska vol, 102 no. 100
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-AS tN projections unavailable
Voter taffBOTil; teglkestiia igSit years
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if i T IB MMi i TiMM MiaMMMMMn
Daily Nibrnkm photo
ASUN President Ken Marienau
By Amy Lenzesi
Acsociatt niws editor
Regulations . prohibiting the use of carcinogenic
;' chemicals by food producers are based on bad scientific
methods, destructive to agricultural marketing and neither
wanted nor needed by consumers, according to critics at a
an agricultural forum Monday night. V -
The forum "Consumer Legislation and. Its Effect on
Agriculture was sponsored by Alpha Zeta, national
honorary for agriculture students.
Constance Kies, UNL professor of Human Nutrition
and Pood Service Management in the School of Home
Economics; Dominick Costello, Nebraska Department of
Agriculture Marketing Chief, and SenV'Loran Schmit of
Bellwood, chairman of the Agriculture Committee criti
cized consumer legislation land the . Food and Drug
Administration; the regulatory agency charged with en
forcing it. ;
Julia Hewgley, consumer affairs officer of the Omaha
PDA office explained the agency's role in enforcing the
legislation and why the legislation was passed.
Impossible amendment
Kies criticized the Dekhey amendment to the Pood
and Drug Act of the late 1950s. This act prohibits the use
of any substance that is shown to be carcinogenic, in any
species, in any amount, as a food additive.
Although the law is morally good because it seeks to
prevent cancer, it Is scientifically unsound, she said.
Instead of allowing substances to be used in safe
amounts they are totally prohibited which is impossible,
according to Kies. ' :
Because new technology allows scientists to detect sub
stances in smaller and smaller amounts they can find a
little of everything in anything.;';.
HTWs leads to the use of extremely-large doses of
chemicals being given to test animals and a bad scientific
' practice, she said. ?' . . . v; -
Costello said the regulations "tend to create marketing .
barriers because they raise the cost of production and
the costs to the consumer. . : . . " ' .
He cited beef import legislation, unnecessary, and ex
OKU
One mors, time: ASUN takes another look at fees
allocations. ... . . .......... .pse 7
Ereskoat: Pe Sheldrick offers -some advice for.
those with less than glamorous pins forsprias
brcik. ....... ..... -. pw3 8
Th Fhsl Four: Columnist looks at tesms Tyir.3
for the NCAA championship. . ...... .pe 10
By Shelley Smith and
Barb Richardson
With the polls closed, and the votes being counted by
the Electoral Commission, ASUN presidential candidates
said they were nervous and anxious to hear final results.
No ballots had been counted by 12:45 ajn. and the
count was not expected to begin until 2:00 a.m.,
according to Electoral Commissioner Susan Ugai.
"We didn't get them here (the computer center at Ne
braska Hall) until about 9:30,7. Ugai said. Once the com
mission received the ballots they had to sort the ballots
according to college, senators, executive and so on, she
said.
Ugai said the sorting process would end about 2:00
a.m. after which the' first computer run Would take place.
The executive ballots will be run first, she said.
Candidates optimistic ,
Bud Cuca, presidential candidate with the Students
for the University of Nebraska (SUN) party, Scott
Brittenham with s the Students Advocating Innovative
Leadership (SAIL) party, and Henry (Bob) Winkler with
the SINK party were busy talking with other party can
didates and buying each other beers. :'f.
Cuca said fid- wailaptimMc'.'sboui the final results, but
added that it was hard to make a judgement. r
He said he was pleaSed with his Campaign, and said he
felt an accomplishment by the size of the voter turnout.
Joe Nigro,- presidential candidate for the Students Or
ganized for Active Representation (SOAR) party said he
"was happy with the large voter turnout.
'JL J 0 J the I
pensive health and safety requirements in food processing
plants,' and labeling requirements as examples of bad
regulations.
There are part of the "mountains of artificial costs be
tween 1 the' farmer and the consumer' that have created
barriers to selling agricUltrual products, Costello said.
"When you put the cost factor on there, I can't see
.where you have produced a better food product.
"At what point does consumer protection become con
sumer harrassment in the form of higher costs?' .
He said regulations prohibiting the Use of supposed
carcinogens are based on fear-although it can't be proven
that chemicals cause cancer they are banned out of fear
they are not safe.
Marketing regulations
"People say 'support is there, so we make regulations
and we say it can't be wrong if no one gets hurt. But
someone does get hurt-the producer," Costello said.
Schmit said in his experience as a legislator most con
cern with consumer affairs is not by "those people who
walk up and down the streets" but by government
officials.
"Interest from the general public is no way as great as
it was 10 years ago," Schmit explained. -
He also said the regulations are not realistic.
There is no way to find out that something is
absolutely safe. We cannot have a completely safe
society"
He said the cost of regulations is prohibitive to the pro
ducer and the consumer.
Consumerists want a "society so clean and pure that
we cannot afford to exist," Schmit said. "We are living
longer today, but we worry more about the cost of health
. care than about the disease.'
' Consumer's lean
Consumerist fears are based on a lack of information
about chemical use, he added.
"They are used to improve and enhance the lives of
everyone In this country ," he noted. -"
. "In the long run," he said, "we have to balance regulat-
i ion and control over competition and freedom." T r
Hewgjey said the primary role of the FDA is that of a,
.consumer health protection ajsncy. '. . " .
. Although Costello had argued that FDS should be
, ; under the department of Airiculture it is under the
control of HEW, she ssid, because "once that food Is pro
duced, It has a different meirjn3-theccnrjrr.tr protect
ion role begins, the production rcle'hu endsd." T ;
She slid the.irientifie studies Kies cxiiictKd are "the
, best we have today " ... - , - ; t- -
i Thi FDA deals with abuse and problems tr.d the
; 4 atney steins to tike a negative approach to druri because '
it Is problem oriented, - , . , .
, Ccnthucd ca pzt 6
"I'm happy for the students' sake. And, I think it was
good for us too," he said.
Nigro rid he felt the campaign was a "good experi
ence" for him and said he had no regrets about any of it.
However, Jon Pfeiffer, first vice presidential candidate
for -the SAIL party said he believed the elections were an
"experience in dirty campaigning."
Current ASUN President Ken Marienau said he was also
pleased with the turnout, and projected the percentage at
about 22 percent.
In last year's election, voter turnout was only 10 per
cent, according to Marienau. He attributed the higher per
centage to more polling places and the increased number
of parties running in the election .
A 22 percent voter turnout would be the highest since
1971.
RHA results
Although the ASUN election final results were not
available, results from the Residence Hall Association elec
tion, held in conjunction with ASUN elections were tabu
lated. Jay Curtiss, a junior who lives in Neihardt Residence
Center, was elected RHA president and led a sweep of
RHA offices by his FIRE party.
Curtiss received 433 votes, according to unofficial elec
tion results. Harlan Milder of OSL party received 349
votes, 238 of which were cast at the Harper-Schramm-Smith
complex where he lives. Jerrie Muir finished third
with 130 votes.
Elected with Curtiss were FIRE candidates Karen
Schrader, vice president; Nancy Kenyon, secretary; and
the highest vote getter of all candidates, Glen Thomas,
treasurer. Thomas received 552 votes. '
JPcllizi problems
973 people Voted in the RHAxelection, which Is 21
percent of those eligible to vote. Last year, 17.5 percent
of residence hall Students voted in RHA elections.
Along with slow ballot counting in the ASUN elec
tion, problems were also reported at several polling places.
. According to poll worker Mike Ebers, there were many
problems at the AbelSandoz polls.
Ebers said workers ran out of senate ballots for the
Arts and Sciences, Home Economics and Architecture
Colleges. He said he Wrote down students names and told
them to come back when they got more ballots.
"Some people came back, but I don't know if everyone
did," he said.
"Too disorganized" C 4
"It was too disorganized," Ebers said, lie added
that the disorganization could have hurV voter turnout.
Ebers said after four or five Women finished Voting
they said they would never vote in an ASUN election
again because it was too much hassle. ;'
Despite organization problems, Ebers said there Was a
good turnout at the complex. He estimated about 150
people voted in a 75-minute period. : . ; .,'V-V
OSI senatorial candidate Pat McGuire said when he
voted at Love Library during the afternoon poll workers
stamped his student identification card and not his left '
thumbnail. ; " , v
Some poll workers did not know what ballots to rjvt
undeclared Students, McGuire said. : :r . -v- s ;
Another problem Ebers pointed out was the mis
printed executive ballot. Workers did not have time to
correct all the ballots, so students may have been
confused. v ,
Although the Abel-Sahdoz polls had problems, a poll
worker at Nebraska Hall said it was the opposite picture
at her poll. - '
''Since about 5:30, there's been about 5 people an
hour," Theresa Schekirke said. ' . r
v- Possible tun-off N" "
The voter turnout at Sigma Chi fraternity was ?not
bad," according to poll worker foancy Kenyon. Kenyon
said most voters were members of Sigma Chi fraternity
or other campus fraternity and sorority members.
Kenyon said that 2 people voted during the last hour
of voting. . . - - -
-, Poll worker Larry Bennett seii the only problem he ex
perienced at the Union was tome students could not vote
because they did not have a current registration sticker on
their student identification card. r
Ugsl also expressed hope thit the new system for Meet
ing ASUN executives wH function properly.
; "HcpefuSy, the Ikre system wH work so we won't
have to have another election " sd J.
However, she sdi there Is always a dier.ee thit a ra
, off election between the two top tote p iters wc-wlJ 1
to be called liter sprinj break.